A timely and thoughtful account of a lost American trying to find himself in a lost country.
A tale of love and personal redemption set in war-torn Afghanistan.
Martin served as an Army soldier during the Cold War, then as a political officer for the State Department in Afghanistan as well as in the Department of Homeland Security—experiences that radiate from every page of his debut novel. The story’s protagonist, Hank Garvey, is also a Vietnam vet and political officer in Afghanistan, assigned to Harmez to report, somewhat optimistically, on any signs of progress following the American invasion. What Hank finds, though, is poverty, rampant cynicism, and the brutal rule of the warlord Akbar Khan. Neither a soldier nor a diplomat, Hank is considered an “outlier,” and he struggles to be taken seriously as he discovers a progressive group organizing opposition to Khan’s tyrannical grip on the city. Meanwhile, he develops a deep romantic attachment to a Danish nurse named Illse Lillestrom, who embodies the mysteriousness and disaffectedness of Harmez itself. The plot, which develops slowly in episodic drips, is not the prime mover here. Instead, Hank’s character keeps the reader drawn in: a former soldier and cop, he’s not quite a hero; the inclination to heroism is but one ingredient in the complex brew that is his personality. Also, the setting, painted by the author in cinematographic detail, functions like a second main character, with ambience captured in brooding tones. The writing is always sharp and, when the subject turns to love, even poetic: “Fully invested in the moment now, blind to doubts and consequences, his arms closed around her in a victory of lust over judgment.” Hank’s tenure in Harmez turns out to be an exercise in renewal; still devastated from the loss of his wife to cancer, he gropes in the dark for purpose and happiness. In addition to touching on the treatment of women’s rights, the book as a whole is a kind of cautionary tale about the fragility of freedom as an export. It’s a rewarding read for those interested in an insider’s account of Afghanistan, revealed in all its unvarnished grimness.
A timely and thoughtful account of a lost American trying to find himself in a lost country.Pub Date: April 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9963225-1-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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